Commercial solar
Commercial solar starts with how the building runs
A commercial evaluation is a different exercise from a residential one. The load profile, the tariff, and who owns the building matter more than the roof area.
What the evaluation depends on
Six things we need to understand
Until these are known, any number would be invented. We would rather say that than produce one.
- Facility usage
- Total consumption and, more importantly, when it happens across the day and the year.
- Roof or site suitability
- Structure, age, membrane type, available area, and whether ground-mount or carport is an option.
- Tariff structure
- Commercial tariffs often include demand charges, which respond to peak load rather than total consumption. This changes the value of solar significantly.
- Operating hours
- A facility running during daylight uses what it produces directly. One running overnight has a different case entirely.
- Ownership
- Whether you own the building or lease it determines what is possible and who has to agree to it.
- Financing goals
- Balance-sheet treatment, capital availability, and how the organisation prefers to account for the asset.
Commercial versus residential
Why this is a different exercise
Both start with a bill. After that they diverge, because the things that decide the answer are not the same — and a commercial project evaluated like a house tends to be evaluated on the wrong facts.
What the bill is read for
- Residential
- Total consumption, and the rate the account is on.
- Commercial
- Consumption and peak demand, read separately. Demand charges respond to the highest load in a period rather than the total, so two facilities using the same energy can bill very differently.
Whose day the system has to match
- Residential
- A household's, which is usually lightest in the middle of the day and heaviest in the evening.
- Commercial
- The facility's operating hours. A site running through daylight consumes what it produces directly; one running overnight has a different case entirely.
Who has to agree
- Residential
- The homeowner, and the utility.
- Commercial
- Potentially the property owner, the tenant, a procurement process, and a board — before the utility is even reached.
What the roof question means
- Residential
- Roof age, orientation, shading, and available area.
- Commercial
- Those, plus membrane type, structural capacity for the added load, plant and equipment already on the roof, and whether ground-mount or carport is available instead.
How long the review takes to set up
- Residential
- One bill is often enough to start a specific conversation.
- Commercial
- Twelve months of usage at the granularity the tariff requires, which sometimes has to be requested from the utility.
Feasibility
How a commercial evaluation actually proceeds
Each stage is answered by the one before it. Select a stage to see what it establishes and what it is gated on — not every property gets past every stage, and that is the point of running them in this order.
01 · You and your utility
Utility usage and tariff
Twelve months of interval or billing data, and the tariff that data is billed under. Commercial tariffs often include demand charges that respond to peak load rather than total consumption, which changes the value of solar significantly.
What this stage is gated on
- Whether usage data is available at the granularity the tariff needs
- The tariff your account is actually on, which may not be the one assumed
- How much of the bill is demand-based rather than consumption-based
02 · Us
Building and roof conditions
Structure, roof age, membrane type, usable area, and whether ground-mount or carport is an option at the site. A roof near the end of its life changes the sequence of the whole project rather than just its cost.
What this stage is gated on
- Remaining life of the roof and any planned replacement
- Structural capacity for the additional load
- Available unobstructed area once plant and equipment are accounted for
03 · You
Operational requirements
When the facility runs, what cannot be interrupted, and what is planned to change. A facility operating during daylight uses what it produces directly; one running overnight has a different case entirely.
What this stage is gated on
- Operating hours across the day, the week, and the year
- Work that cannot be disrupted during installation
- Planned changes to equipment, shifts, or occupancy
04 · You and the property owner
Ownership or lease position
Solar is a long-lived asset attached to a building. Whether you own the property or lease it determines what is possible and who has to agree to it, and it is better to establish that early than late.
What this stage is gated on
- Whether the property owner is party to the conversation
- Lease term remaining relative to the life of the system
- Who holds the right to alter the roof or the electrical service
05 · Installation partner
Site review
A qualified partner confirms on site what the desk review assumed: structure, electrical service, interconnection point, and access. Findings here can change the design, and sometimes they end the evaluation.
What this stage is gated on
- Physical findings, which can differ from drawings and imagery
- Capacity of the existing electrical service and switchgear
- Access for installation and for ongoing maintenance
06 · Provider, lender, and program administrator
Program and financing eligibility
Which programs and financing structures are open to this project. Depending on the project and financing program, eligible solar, battery, roof, or related improvement costs may be combined into one financing package — whether that is possible is determined by the provider, the program terms, and your qualification.
What this stage is gated on
- Eligibility criteria set by the provider or lender, not by us
- Program terms, which change and are not uniform across areas
- How the organisation prefers to treat the asset on its balance sheet
07 · Installation partner and authorities
Design and approval coordination
Final design, permitting, interconnection application, and the approvals your organisation needs internally. We coordinate and report what stage the project is at; the timelines belong to the authorities and the utility.
What this stage is gated on
- Permitting and inspection schedules set by the jurisdiction
- Utility interconnection queues for commercial-scale connections
- Your own procurement, board, or landlord approval path
Reaching a later stage is not an indication that a project qualifies. Evaluations end at every one of these stages, and the honest outcome is sometimes that a property is not a good candidate.
What we are not going to tell you
We will not publish a payback period, an internal rate of return, or a system size for a building we have not assessed. Any of those depends on the six factors above and on incentives that change. If you have seen a figure like that from someone who has not looked at your tariff, it was a guess.
Property types
The buildings we can evaluate
Commercial solar is decided by how a building actually uses energy, not by what it is called. These are the property types we can review.
Office buildings
Daytime load that often lines up well with production hours.
Retail centers
Long trading hours, refrigeration, and shared-roof arrangements.
Warehouses
Large uninterrupted roof area, often with modest base load.
Industrial facilities
Process equipment and demand charges shape the whole design.
Multifamily properties
Common-area and individually metered load are evaluated differently.
Churches and faith-based organizations
Concentrated weekly use and long-term ownership horizons.
Nonprofit facilities
Ownership structure and available programs both matter here.
Private schools and educational campuses
Seasonal occupancy and multiple buildings on one account.
Municipal and public buildings
Procurement rules and approval paths are part of the timeline.
Community centers
Variable schedules and mixed-use spaces under one roof.
Sports and recreation facilities
Lighting, pumps, and evening peaks drive the usage profile.
Agricultural and specialty-use properties
Irrigation, drying, and cold storage create distinct load shapes.
Project feasibility depends on energy usage, roof or site conditions, utility requirements, financing, ownership approval, and local regulations.
After you get in touch
What actually happens next
There is no proposal at the end of this list, because a proposal is only meaningful once the review below has been done.
We confirm what we have and what is missing
Usage data, tariff, address, and ownership position. If something is missing we tell you what it is and where on the bill to find it.
We read the usage against the tariff
Consumption and peak demand separately, because the tariff treats them separately. This is where it becomes clear what solar could and could not affect on your bill.
We look at the site as a desk review
Available area, orientation, obstructions, and whether ground-mount or carport is worth considering. This stage uses drawings and imagery, and it can be wrong — that is what the site visit is for.
We tell you what we found, including if it is discouraging
A roof near the end of its life, a load profile that does not overlap with production, or a lease too short for the asset are all real findings, and you hear them at this point rather than after a survey.
If it is worth continuing, a partner reviews the site
A qualified installation partner confirms structure, electrical service, interconnection point, and access. Findings here can change the design or end the evaluation.
Nothing in this sequence is an approval, and reaching any stage of it does not indicate that a project qualifies. Program and financing eligibility is decided by providers, lenders, and program administrators, not by us.
Getting ready
What to have ready for a commercial review
None of this commits you to anything, and an evaluation can start without all of it. The more of it we have, the fewer assumptions end up in the answer.
- Twelve months of utility bills for the facility, or interval data if your account provides it
- The tariff or rate schedule the account is billed under — it is printed on the bill
- The property address, and whether you own the building or lease it
- Roof age and any planned replacement, plus anything already mounted up there
- Operating hours across the day and the week, and any seasonal pattern
- Anything planned that would change the load: added equipment, a shift change, EV charging, or an expansion
Bundling eligible improvements
Depending on the project and financing program, eligible solar, battery, roof, or related improvement costs may be combined into one financing package. Whether that is possible is determined by the provider, the program terms, and your qualification — it is not available on every project, and we will tell you which applies to yours rather than assume.
Commercial questions
Frequently asked questions
Do you work with leased buildings?
It depends on the lease and the landlord. Solar is a long-lived asset attached to a building, so the property owner has to be part of the conversation. It is worth establishing early whether that is realistic.
What about demand charges?
They are often the largest single line on a commercial bill and they respond to peak load rather than total consumption. Solar alone may or may not reduce them; storage sometimes does. It depends on when your peaks occur.
Can you handle multiple sites?
Each site needs its own evaluation because tariffs, roofs, and usage differ. Tell us what you are working with and we will be straightforward about what we can coordinate.
Start with your usage and your tariff
Send us a recent bill for the facility and we will tell you what the evaluation would involve.